


fathers and daughters

by aces



Category: Castle
Genre: Families of Choice, Family, Future Fic, Gen, LGBTQ Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-16
Updated: 2011-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-14 19:49:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces/pseuds/aces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Am I the last person Alexis decided to tell about her expanded sexual identity?... Those are words that should never come out of a father’s mouth.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	fathers and daughters

**Author's Note:**

> Mildly spoilery for 3x10, “Last Call,” 3x11, “Nikki Heat,” and generally for the show. Set about 2-3 years in the future.

“Alex…is,” Castle called as he ran up from the office under the Old Tavern. He stopped mid-word, though, when he saw her kissing someone good-bye at the door.

A _girl_ someone. And this, this was no ordinary friendly kiss; this was most definitely a good-bye-girlfriend type of kiss. Rick Castle would know the difference.

“Dad?” Alexis asked, after bolting the main entrance. She turned to look at him, long, bright hair whirling around behind her. She smiled. “Did you need something?”

“I…what? No.” He realized he was blinking a lot, and his mouth was hanging open. Alexis frowned up at him in concern. “Are you okay?” she asked, holding out her hand as she walked toward him, and he automatically took it and gave it a squeeze.

“Fine,” he said, though he still looked confused, and possibly troubled, “I’m just fine, sweetie.”

*

“Ryan, bro, seriously,” Esposito was saying as Castle walked into the homicide squad room. “You need to chill.”

“Easy for you to say, man.” Kevin was chewing his fingernails and staring at his phone. “If you were me, you would _not_ be saying that.”

Castle stopped in front of Ryan’s desk. Kevin raised his eyes to look up at the writer, but his eyes were inevitably drawn back to the phone that was categorically refusing to ring on his desk. “I remember this,” Rick said to the room at large with a wide grin. “I remember this _exactly_.” He clapped the detective on the shoulder, then leant in to whisper, “She’s _fine_ , Ryan.”

“I’ve got more nieces and nephews than you have cousins,” Javier added, dumping a pile of paperwork on Ryan’s desk next to his phone. “I know from babies, okay? Quit worrying.”

Kevin was still gnawing at a fingernail, but he did pull the top folder off the pile his partner had presented him and flipped it open. “This is way worse than a stakeout,” he pointed out.

“Also, more long-term,” Castle added with a grin before going up to Beckett’s desk with her customary morning cup of coffee. “Detective Beckett!”

“Castle,” she replied in her usual slightly mocking tone. The undertone of warmth had long ago taken any sting out of the mocking, though. “About time you showed up.”

“I was late closing up the bar last night—this morning,” he said and then sat down with a distracted frown. Kate smiled a thank-you for the coffee but paused when she saw his face. “Are…you okay?” she asked.

“I—I don’t know,” he said. “Alexis has been home almost a week now—”

“Ahhh,” Kate said, leaning back in her chair with a knowing grin. “Home for the summer after her first full year of college. You have no idea what to do with her, do you?”

“It’s not that she’s _changed_ ,” Castle immediately protested. “Or—well, of course she’s changed, she’s been away from home, she’s learned a lot, she knows new people, she’s a young woman with her own life, her own story to write—” Beckett was _grinning_ at him, and he floundered helplessly for a moment before collapsing. “I don’t know what to do with her,” he admitted with a sigh and took a disconsolate sip from his own coffee. “It’s not like when she was in high school even,” he said at last. “I knew all her friends, she’d tell me every day how her day went. Even when she was home for winter break this past December was fine, normal. Now—now I don’t know everyone she talks about, and we don’t talk nearly as much, and—” He stopped again, and set down his coffee.

“Castle?” Beckett leaned forward. “What’s wrong?”

“I saw her last night—this morning,” he said slowly. “With—someone.”

Kate’s eyebrows raised. “New person in her life?” she asked lightly and turned back to her computer screen.

“Maybe,” Rick said. “Old enough for a pretty thorough good-bye kiss.”

Beckett started sorting paperwork. “Mm-hmm,” she said.

“It wasn’t a boyfriend, though,” Castle went on.

“No?” Kate sounded mildly interested. She bit her lip.

“Girlfriend,” Rick pronounced dramatically, and Kevin Ryan’s cell phone started ringing.

“Oh, thank _God_ ,” Ryan said, snatching it up, and Espo rolled his eyes.

*

“It’s fine, Alexis,” Castle overheard Beckett saying into her phone, “just talk to him, okay?”

Castle kept walking toward her, holding a tray of execrable hospital coffee. “Why are you talking to Alexis?” he asked suspiciously, holding the tray out toward Esposito. The detective took two of the cups there, handing the other one to Ryan, who took it distractedly.

“I just had to tell her something, that’s all,” Kate said comfortably, taking one of the other coffee cups. “Thanks, Castle,” she added, blowing a little on the cup to cool it off.

“Ow,” Kevin said from his seat next to Javier. He’d taken a sip without waiting and burnt his tongue. Esposito rolled his eyes again but was already grabbing the cup from his partner when the doors in front of them started swinging open, Ryan shooting up to see who came through. Javier handed the second cup of coffee back to Castle and stepped closer to his partner.

“Mr. Ryan?” the nurse said, and Kevin almost staggered against the wall, and Javier was still shaking his head at his partner’s wussiness, but he put a hand out to steady the other man. “Your wife’s waiting for you, and the doctor wants to see you.”

Ryan turned to the other three. Kate smiled at him encouragingly, Castle held a thumb’s-up. Esposito glared at him. “Go,” he said firmly, turning his partner around and shoving him toward the nurse. She smiled at him comfortingly and then pushed the door open, holding it for him. Ryan started moving slowly, increasing his speed until he fast disappeared from sight. The nurse glanced back at the rest of the team. “First one?” she asked, and they all nodded. She grinned and then disappeared as well.

“He’s a good detective, and a good man,” Javier Esposito said of his partner, “but sometimes he is also completely pathetic.” He sat down in the chair Ryan had vacated and started drinking his coffee.

Castle was still grinning after Ryan, awash in nostalgia for the day Alexis had been born. “I wonder if Jenny’s started screaming at him yet,” he said, turning to Beckett, and then he abruptly stopped grinning. “You _knew_ ,” he told her accusingly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Castle.” Kate sounded patient, and a little amused.

“Oh yes you do,” he said. “You _knew_ and you didn’t tell me?!”

“It’s not my place to tell you anything about your daughter,” she replied. “Go to the Old Tavern tonight; I think Alexis wants to talk.”

*

Castle walked into the bar, blazer slung over his shoulder, a little smile lurking unbeknownst to him on his face. He sprawled into his usual booth, and a moment later Alexis bounded up to him. “Well? Mrs. Ryan, how is she? Did she have the baby?”

“Bright and bubbly little girl,” Castle said, almost as proud as if the baby was his own. “You should have seen Ryan’s face, I thought it was gonna split in two he was grinning so hard, and as for _Esposito_ , the uncle-once-more is never gonna live down the fact he was crying—” He stopped, focused on his daughter, glared at her. “Why didn’t you _tell_ me?” he said. His tone, with astonishing quickness, shaded into something approaching real anger.

Alexis’ face fell. “Dad, I—” She stopped, bit her lip, then left the booth. Castle glared after her but waited, knowing and trusting his daughter not to leave things like that. She came back a minute later with a whisky glass and sat down again, sliding it carefully across the table toward him.

He looked down at it, then looked back up at her. She gave him a hopeful smile. He kept glaring. She sighed.

“Dad, I’m bi,” she said.

The glare was wiped away from his face, leaving him looking tired and older than she remembered ever seeing him. He sighed and took a sip of the scotch. “How long—” he said.

“It started with Gracie,” she said promptly. “Remember when she came to visit from Kansas, my junior year? And it was all weird and awkward at first because we didn’t know how to act around each other anymore?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Castle was frowning a little in concentration. “But you two figured it out and got along great by the time she went back home, I thought.”

“Yeah,” Alexis was blushing a little. “I walked her to the train, and she kissed me good-bye. Not just a peck on the cheek but, you know, a—a proper kiss.” She grinned at the memory, the pink in her cheeks starting to fade a little. “I was startled, you know? But I—well, I kissed her back. And then she got on the train, and then I felt guilty because of Ash, and then—then I couldn’t figure out what to think. Or feel.”

She hesitated, then reached across to take her dad’s hand. “It kinda made me wake up a little, dad. I’d always noticed other girls—some girls, anyway, the way I noticed some guys—but I hadn’t really thought about it.” She tossed her head, rolled her eyes. “High school is so binary, anyway,” she added, with all the adult maturity only a nineteen-year-old with one year of college under her belt could muster, “I never thought about the possibility of there being _other_ options. You were straight or you were gay, you know?”

“Is this why you didn’t say anything?” Castle had calmed down by now from all the emotional roller coasters of the past 24 hours, and his voice was quiet and gentle. “You know you could have come to me with _any_ thing, right, that I wouldn’t have—”

“Of course I knew, dad,” Alexis gave him her biggest and most reassuring grin, and squeezed his hand. “But I didn’t want to say anything if _I_ didn’t know how I felt, you know? I—I talked to gram about it. It was hard, I was so _nervous_. I mean, I knew I could trust her, and she would love me no matter what—”

“And she is a theatre person,” Castle interjected thoughtfully, and Alexis nodded.

“Exactly! But I was still—I didn’t know how she would react. Oh, dad, she was _wonderful_. She just gave me a hug and put her hands on my cheeks—you know how she does—and told me one should never limit her options.” Alexis was laughing at the memory, her eyes shining, and Rick couldn’t help grinning himself; it did sound exactly like something his mother would say. Alexis’ smile faded, and she shrugged a little. “I didn’t say anything to you, dad, because it was all—theoretical. I was with Ashley at the time, and then later we broke up, and then I was going to college and was too busy to think about any of it. But then, this past semester in my art history class, I met Lisa—” She started blushing again. “I really like her, dad. _Really_ like her. And she was in town visiting family this past weekend, so she dropped by really quickly last night—and, I guess you know about that part.” Her mouth turned down, she took her hand away and put it in her lap, and she glanced up at her father a little guiltily. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you sooner, when I was still at school. It—I just didn’t want to have that conversation over the phone or email—” Castle shuddered at the thought of _that_ text message—“and I kept putting it off and putting it off, and then I was _home_ and I still didn’t know how to say anything.”

Castle stared down at the table between himself and his daughter. And then he drained his glass and held his hand out across the table, waiting. Alexis hesitated, then put her hand in his again. He squeezed and finally looked up and met her eye.

“I love you, Alexis,” he said clearly, “no matter what you do, who you choose to be with, or how you go about your life. Just don’t keep me out of the loop. Alright?”

Her lower lip trembled a little, and her eyes were shining again, and Rick squeezed her hand again. “I’m sorry,” she said in a rush. “I don’t know, it’s like I’ve forgotten how to talk to you or something! It’s _terrible_!”

“Don’t worry,” Kate Beckett said, and both Castles looked up to see her standing by their booth, smiling at them fondly. “He doesn’t know how to talk to you anymore either. It’s the curse of every father and daughter.”

“Something for Kevin Ryan to look forward to,” Castle said with a flash of a smile, and Kate grinned back at him understandingly. Alexis slid out of the booth, taking her father’s glass with her. “Can I get you anything, Detective Beckett?” she asked as she stepped past the other woman.

“Kate,” Beckett reminded her gently, “and yeah, could you get me a beer? Thanks.” She sat down next to Castle and turned to look at him, raising her eyebrows.

Castle rolled his eyes. “ _Thank_ you, Detective Beckett,” he said, “for forcing my daughter to talk to me.”

“I did nothing,” Kate said calmly, “I just gave her a phone call and told her you’d seen something last night that had you a little concerned your daughter was keeping something important from you.”

“So when did _you_ find out?” Castle sounded accusing again. “Am I the last person Alexis decided to tell about her expanded sexual identity?” A strange look passed over his face. “Those are words that should never come out of a father’s mouth,” he added.

“She talked to me about a year ago,” Kate said calmly. “Probably longer ago than that, come to think of it—when she was doing that other community service project, remember? She said she’d already talked to her grandmother but wanted a younger woman’s perspective too, and she didn’t feel comfortable talking to any of her friends at school.”

Castle’s own eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. He leaned forward. “Beckett?” he said suggestively. “Have _you_ ever…?”

Beckett smiled, slowly. She leaned forward herself. “A woman,” she said quietly, “would never kiss and tell.” She straightened and turned as Alexis came back to the booth with a refill for her dad, a beer for Kate, and a cranberry juice for herself.

Alexis looked between Kate and her dad. Her dad took that moment to remember to breathe, heaving for oxygen. Alexis’ eyes narrowed. “What just happened?” she asked.

“I just gave your dad something else to think about,” Beckett said calmly. “Shall we toast Kevin and Jenny?”

“To parents and children,” Alexis held up her juice, sunny disposition restored.

“To mothers and daughters,” Castle said, glancing at Kate before remembering to hold up his scotch.

“To fathers and daughters,” Kate said, looking at Castle as she held up her beer.

The three clinked their drinks.


End file.
